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The web3 gaming industry has long been touted as a key driver for blockchain adoption, but web3 gaming itself needs new development ideas to remain attractive to both the existing user base and new web2 users.
One potential step for blockchain-based gaming could be the source traditional gaming once explored—movies. Taking movies to gaming used to be a powerful and time-proven formula: think about Dune, Robocop, The Matrix, Spider-Man, The Lord of the Rings… Yet, despite the explosive growth of web3, this powerful connection remains largely unexplored by both blockchain gaming projects and the film industry.
The gap between studios and game developers must be bridged once again. This time—with new frontiers for fan engagement, interactive storytelling, and next-gen gaming economies—with web3.
And this synergy is something that the movie industry needs back as well. Amid the rise of streaming and the post-COVID-19 decline in cinema-goers, the industry’s revenue model has shifted to alternative sources like merch, licensing, and integration. Bringing IP licensing to web3 gaming is a win-win-win strategy: millions of new users into the users for blockchain, revitalized interest in gaming, and an additional revenue source for movie studios.
Integration in gaming is not a novel concept—think about all the digital concerts and brand placement in Fortnite or Roblox, the game that effectively became a metaverse of its own. From Netflix opening its playable worlds in Roblox to Marvel Rivals solidifying its position in Steam’s Top 3, such titles have been extremely successful in merging cinema and gaming. Taking the traction and revenue generation just one step further is an intuitive concept, but it’s complicated by licensing.
Licensing IP is still a major roadblock
Licensing IP for games has always been a slow, costly, and opaque process. Traditional licensing is a multi-stage negotiation game: from accumulating reputation and establishing a lasting relationship to navigating the nuances of cross-jurisdictional complex contracts. Despite the obvious mutual benefits, this IP licensing still remains a bespoke procedure with extreme barriers to entry. The World Intellectual Property Organization attempts to standardize intellectual property usage, but its guidance is limited by the lack of enforcement practices. Even the well-examined and regulated jurisdictions fail to address the fringe copyright violation cases. What is to be said of developing regulations and ambiguous contract interpretations?
Putting implementation vagueness aside, even straightforward and universally understood contracts remain a bane: prolonged negotiations significantly delay the products’ time to market, and the legal and administrative fees cut into the profits for both studios and developers. Disputes over revenue sharing and rights management, capped royalty payments, advertisement — the list can go on and on.
Can blockchain help?
Theoretically speaking, blockchain can easily solve these pain points. From standardized audited smart-contract licensing to immutable and transparent revenue tracking and automated payments, monetizing intellectual property becomes simple when taken on-chain. Think about unlocking the administrative resource that is currently chained by the necessity for constant supervision—isn’t this efficiency optimization in pure form?
The problem is that while the technology is ready, the regulatory environment is lagging behind. Yes, blockchain will eventually become the readily available solution for streamlining intellectual property management, but only when the entire legal system is overhauled to support it. This also requires a global enforcement system and a set of court precedents in major jurisdictions as a foundational interpretation textbook. It is a very complex issue with numerous moving parts, so, at least in the near future, I don’t see IP licensing leaving its off-chain contractual domain. This doesn’t mean, however, that we shouldn’t get ready for the take-off: its time will certainly come.
There is another virtue that blockchain can bring to gaming besides IP management: ownership of in-game assets. Would Counter-Strike be this massively popular had it had no tradeable skins? I doubt so. This is a multimillion-dollar economy with its own high-frequency traders, market-makers, collectors, appraisals, and third-party platforms. Now, think about all the slippages and lack of liquidity. Full non-custodial ownership is the solution.
This non-custodial digital ownership can extend past the limits of a single game or a platform. Imagine a world where skins, weapons, avatars, in-game progress, or even entire game worlds can be transferred seamlessly from one game to another. This may become a reality sooner than you think, with Epic Games CEO touting Unreal Engine 6 as a potential way to connect Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft into one interoperable metaverse. Take the Marvel Universe games. Unite them through web3 ownership. What you get is a universe akin to Marvel’s cinematic blockbuster, the Infinity War.
Synergy is the only solution
GameFi can revitalize gaming, and IP licensing can attract new audiences, tired of the same repetitive gaming franchises and yearning for a new but recognizable plot and gaming experience. IP licensing on web3 can do both. It is a rare symbiosis opportunity, currently ignored by all stakeholders—the movie industry, the gaming industry, and blockchain.
Prepare to expect more partnerships between gaming developers and film studios as they explore shared IP opportunities, especially when more legal precedents will trace out the basic game rules in this field. Furthermore, as crypto regains its widespread acceptance and popularity, the stigma of crypto partnerships, once established by FTX, is gradually fading. Trump memecoins onboarded millions of non-crypto people to the digital assets sphere—and movies can do the same. Finally, the growing recognition of blockchain by mass audiences means that blockchain will likely appear in movies as tangential mentions or even a plot-centering concept—think Ready Player One remade in 2025.
